CULTURE SHOCK!
We arrived safely on the air conditioned bus after a 5.5hr trip from Chiang Mai to Mae Sot yesterday but were so exhausted from getting up at 5.30am to get the plane to Chiang Mae that we never made it to the computer. Sorry!
We were met in a jeep by Thazin, Headteacher of Hle Bee School, Bobo artist/teacher at Hle Bee School and San da, a Burmese lady who know Dau Aung San Suu Kyi and works with many Burmese schools in this area. They brought us to the DK hotel where we have a very clean room. Then they took us for a wee tour of local restaurants who sell food that is not local - how well and how quickly they know us! Sheila had Hawaiian Pizza and Geoff had gulash, which was surprisingly made with fish! We konked out at about 9.45pm and slept until 6.30am when we pottered up to Candian Dave's restaurant (we've told him we are likely to live there all week!) for cereal and toast and tea for Sheila and bacon, egg and chips for Geoff!
Then it was off to school with all our gifts on a tuktuk, which is a 3 wheeled motorcycle rickshaw with seats for 6 passengers.
Is the school how I imagined? One building is but the other is much more basic than I thought. The main building has a metal roof which feels like an electric fire it radiates so much heat in the sun, then becomes incredibly noisy when the thundershowers batter down. It has a concrete matted floor, which is pleasant, but the second building has a mud floor and a roof made of leaves and branches. When you go there, your feet stick into the red, sticky mud and this building has 5 classrooms. I was worried the children would get wet in the thunderstorm but the leaves held the rain out well. The children were adorable, so engaging and happy to see us. The class of 45 3/4 yr olds we spent most of the day in had no desks, no toys and learned by rote and repitition much of the day. After lunch the teacher said sleep and they did! All 45 of them for 2 hours! As they woke they did some writing of Burmese and English letters in jotters. The older class had 11 pupils. This is their last year before going to High School or work. They enjoyed reading the letters from Forthview children and playing SNAP with me. They also cut up the paper for tomorrow when we are going to use the etching press Forthview gave Hle Bee. We showed them lots of pictures of Forthview on Sheila's laptop. Their PCs are not able to be used currently. So much more to say but that will do about the school for now.
The walk back from school through Mae Sot was almost too much. So so hot and so much food being cooked or displayed raw at many stalls, so many people, motorbikes, dogs, goats all in quite close streets was overwhelming. We were so glad to get back to DK hotel and fall asleep. too much to take in for one day hence the title CULTURE SHOCK.

PS No photo today because this PC in the hotel is not liking Geoff's camera. We will work on it as we have so many cracking photos to post. We both have Flickr accounts but can't remember our passwords!